The year 2014 started well quiet. We stayed for New Year at the hostel with some guests who later went to see the great show of fireworks and then returned to the hostel and we were up until early in the morning, enjoying the beginning of a new stage.

We invited everyone to enjoy the summer with us, travel, enjoy, relax and have fun!! Throughout the year we try to motivate you to come and it worked with many of you J

We had here many good people wave, crazy, loving ….

In the first half of the year many things happened in Chile that affected many people. First was the earthquake in the north and after the fire in Valparaiso. We tried to help what we could.

After all that was already coming autumn and that was the start of the biggest event this year: World Cup !! We had a lot of faith, because now everyone knows that “chile mete miedo”!! All the exciting moments we shared, the match against Spain that made story … and all we were with the Brazilians here at the hostel, just at the time when we do not rely …:) was nice to share those moments here at aji watching the games with you dear people, enjoyed sick !!

During the world cup came the winter and so the snow. Many people who for the first time went to the snow and felt the magic …

And suddenly the magic got back to the hostel too. It came the magician and friend of the hostel Oscar Duval! We loved his tricks …

During that time equal to Chilesertur participate in Winter tourism fair.

And then came the moment we were all waiting. We work so fed up and finally it was time: they gave us the seal of sustainability !!!

While that, we were working on our new blog! A Blog with stories, Traveltips, Budget, Santiago, …

In our blog we started to show you what you can do here in Santiago, what is so special about Aji Hostel, which trips can be made from here …. We will continue with that, I hope you enjoy it and it serves you.

At the end of winter we started with our new company, Internship and Travel, an agency for foreigners who want to come to Chile to practice, volunteer work, Spanish course or more… So if you want to come to Chile to work, write us!

And it was time for spring and with it came the September 18th! Had cueca dancing in the living room, or trying to dance… J

Then we signed in for “compitemas”, which is a platform that aims to support progress on Sustainability of small and medium Chilean companies. We want to be more sustainable yet

In the last stage of this year, we were already thinking about the year ahead, to make your stay even more enjoyable.

But if we think in 2014, mostly we think about all of you, in happy and humorous moments spent in all roasts, parties, on “Miercoles Po” … and we want to thank all of you who stayed with us this year … Hopefully some of you we are going to see in 2015!

Thanks to our staff who accompanied us this year … some took another path now, wish them well and will miss them. Some new people arrived and we wish them have a good time next year with all of you, luck and encouragement!

From all our heart we wish all of you, our dear guests and friends, the best for the next year, their upcoming trips and adventures!!

English:

The Island that isn’t an Island!

The Trip and the arriving

If traveling from Santiago roughly 110 kilometers to the west come to a place called “Isla Negra” (“the Black Island”). From Providencia you take the red line to the central station and from there take a bus that goes to the coast and leave you there.

One comes to Black Island and the first and most surprising is that it is not an island … What you see after is the bus stop which is spectacular and I find it super cute. It is made of cement, but in between there are old glass bottles that let light into different colors … well above the bus stop, whereabouts sails are hoisted ….

The House of Pablo Neruda

Whereabouts you walk few meters undulating dirt roads and flanked by large pines, to find the third house of Pablo Neruda (mentioned in the article valpo too). Today this house belongs to the Neruda Foundation. The house is now a museum and has guided tour. Throughout the house you can marvel at the different objects that the poet collected throughout his life: figureheads, masks of various shapes and backgrounds, bottles, photographs, boxes of strange insects and butterflies, pottery from Latin America, carved figures Rapa Nui, watches, navigation instruments, globes and shells of all sizes are some of them.

If one makes the tour of the house they will tell you many stories. The house was the last house of Pablo Neruda, he died there and now beside the house you can visit the grave of him and his last wife …

Pablo Neruda is surely not the only artist in Isla Negra, may be the only one so famous … so far at least … The village is full of artists, craft, inspiration, …

The imaginary Ship (Nave Imaginaria)

If you walk a little further into the forest (the village is between the forest and the sea) suddenly you find a house that looks like a boat, but bigger. Ahouse built like a ship, with in between bottles with candles moving with the wind, made with love, creativity and patience. This house, which isn’t really a house if not a boat, is called the “imaginary ship” (nave imaginaria)

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBNObyHg1-k ) and one can go and return to his childhood for a while or let your imagination flow. The problem is, that they probably (almost sure but hopefully not)are going to take the house off there, for many reasons (not done as it should be, people throw trash to the neighbors, make pipi in the neighbors garden, … ) Many people and many opinions on this house, you can make you your own one, but for sure the problem to trash and pipi is not the captain, if not, we are, the people who will see this house … which is really spectacular!

What else…..

Apart from all the art (which is a bit like trade, but cute) there is a very beautiful beach by the sea and many huge sets of rocks in front of a big wave Pacific Ocean. It is great to sit by the sea and watch the waves break with giant rocks. For many people “Isla Negra” is the preferred place for retreats or simply disconnect a bit from day to day! For me it is also an oasis of peace and you can forget all past, so I recommend to go there!! And besides lowering the prettiest sunset I saw in my life was in Isla Negra … Hopefully one day you can feel the tranquility and peace of the island, which is no island, but it is still a little island ….

Ingles:

We told you already a lot about activities you can do in Santiago and talked about festivals and so on, now we found that it is time to also show you what happens in Santiago in the Nights.

Karaoke, discos, live music, trendy bars, casinos, theaters, cinemas and culture are part of the entertaining alternatives offered from the bohemian neighborhoods of the capital for an unforgettable night.

The Chileans are very good to celebrate, even if there is no reason any … 🙂 We like to party, which in Chile is “carrete”. You leave already at night and returne early in the morning … for the after-hour. There are also places where they sell snacks to revitalize the body, such as tenderloin or completo, two of the most typical Chilean sandwiches. Chileans often refer to these dishes as “bajon”, being intended to combat hunger and the effects of the dreaded hangover, that Chileans call “caña”.

Here we show a certain neighborhoods where you can find night activities, whether it be a bar, club, disco, restaurants, live music, theater and more. In other articles (to come) we are going to present some places into details, here a small overview.

The most popular is the Bellavista neighborhood (commune Providencia and Recoleta). Bellavista is located about 15 minutes to walk from our hostel located in Providencia. At the entrance you find the Patio Bellavista where there are many restaurants that are perfect to start with a drink and nibbles a fun night. Then you can go through two streets which are full of bars, discos, etc. which are the street Pio Nono and constitución. There are many places with all kind of music. Or you can stay in the Bellavista patio and visit such Backstage with performances of live music and the Cachafaz that besides being a good place for a drink. It is a theater café concert with performances by tango, comedians and even karaoke.

In Nuñoa neighborhood is the Nuñoa plaza, which is more quiet than the Bellavista but full of bars, pubs and restaurants also. To go for a drink with friends and peck is typical, for example an icy michelada with a chorillana, it’s perfect. You can also eat very rich for such little money in a Peruvian restaurants that are there. And obviously there’s also some places for dancing or live music, who likes rock for example would have to go to the “batuta”.

In Providencia is a street called Manuel Montt, there you can also find many bar, clubs and karaoke. The most famous place in this street is Liguria, with its Chilean cuisine and good drinks and the urban myth that when you have every Wednesday karaoke on Thursdays live music and on Friday we Aji Hostel we go with all our passengers to urban myth and all our guests are free!! This street is like 10 minutes from our hostel away.

So many places in Santiago and nightlife is every day … That was a small impression of neighborhoods so that when you want to leave without knowing what disco, club, pub or bar you’ll end up you already have an idea. If you are looking for something specific, expect articles I’ll write after visiting some more places J and I have already a place in mind that I want to recommend ….

English

time to visit nature

Now that it finally seems to get spring and summer is coming it is time to go back to fresh air. For all who like to move in nature we have here a traveltip in Santiago which seems like heaven!!

In the “parque natural aguas de ramón” there is much room for walking and trekking. You’ll be able to find trails of varying difficulty; you can find routes according to the physical conditions of each individual.

Besides the different paths there are more parks like more trails near there yet. But this time we recommend this because there are three routes that are especially nice.

From our hostel in Providence for example take the Metro station in Salvador take the red line to tobalaba. In tobalaba you transfer to the Blue Line to Francisco Bilbao. From Francisco Bilbao, you take the micro D08 (Whereabouts by Av. Bilbao, traffic direction east). Get off at Av.Padre Vildósola Silva Carlos Hurtado, Plaza La Reina. In Plaza La Reina, take a taxi or walk 25 min by Onofre Jarpa towards the mountains. There you get to the park.

When you get to the park there is a place where you start your way up. You’ll find gazebos, bridges, waterfalls and places of interaction with nature, ideal to complement and reinforce cognitive and spiritual formation.

There are three stops on this way, they are like the three destinations. You choose the destination that seems physically possible for you or that you like! As higher as you want to go up, the earlier you have to be there. All the way there are rivers, waterfalls and many beautiful views, so even if you want get on to the last destination you also can see a lot and you’re sure to enjoy!

Que el color, la música y la danza llenen sus corazones.

This coming weekend will be the thousand drums- parade in Valparaiso, edition number 15.

This weekend is special, Valparaiso let the streets been taken from peace, the people, the joy and the party. It is a carnival passing through the streets of Valparaiso with good vibes, good people and the idea of unifying various cultural sectors, music, dance, art, street art and theater, in one place.

People gather in public spaces to highlight Chilean culture and traditions and to protest with peace and happiness for human rights.

They are manifestations of social discontent and a call to retrieve what is believed lost, especially historical heritage. But it is also designed to meet and enjoy the joy and art. There are everywhere gigs, painted bodies, dressed people, folk dancers, and more. This year the teme is “homenaje a Valparaiso” .

This event equal is to promote Valparaiso as cultural city and city of peace that is always willing to interact with people and culture. Because of this and his architecture they named the city as a world heritage. So even if you are not in Chile or in Valparaiso this weekend you definitely have to go there to see it!

If you want to stay for a night or two in Valparaiso we suggest here two hostels (Valparaiso has many choices of hostels)

Like this:

search an alternative way where to stay in a city for a couple a days

When hostels can get stressfu

All of you which traveled around know that it can be very tiring to always move, travel, celebrate, pack, unpack, move again, get into temptation to celebrate again….and don’t sleep a lot. Or when you have to go to another city for work, further education, courses or some business stuff maybe you want stay in a hotel and like you need your rest to be well the other day a hostel also isn’t the right place…

While traveling or staying outside you almost everyday share your room with new people, you can’t move without carrying about the others, can’t shower when you want to because maybe already somebody is taking a shower, somebody puts the light on while you’re sleeping, somebody is great in snoring and so on. When you want to cook maybe everyone wants to eat or there are already a lot of people cooking… or, when you are traveling in couple and want to have your privacy once in a while…

All this things are fine for a while and is an adventure, but maybe someday you only want to come to a quiet place, where you can do whatever you want, cook like you want to, rest in the living without caring about others, watch in the television what you want, go to bed without somebody making noises around you, got up when you wake up and not because somebody is getting up…

A good solution

We already had people in our hostel they were happy when there once weren’t that much people and no party so that they could sleep and didn’t Also some people who stayed in our hostel for a longer time they searched an empty hostel for one or two days to take a rest.

Another and a very good opportunity is to rend a furnished apartment. Nowadays there exist in all the big cities furnished apartments which you can rent for one or more days. Santiago became full of this sort of apartments in the last years and they are very popular!

They are comfortable, quiet, and nice. They include services like cleaning, information desk and a lot of them have swimming pool in the building. And the big difference: they give you your privacy.

Some references

There are a lot of different options of furnished apartments, you can find a lot in the heart of Santiago. Many offers of apartments are in the historic downtown of Santiago and also in the Providencia area. There are completely equipped apartments in the best locations close to La Moneda (Chilean House of Government), the most important tourist attractions in the city, and steps away from the citys subway stations.

Normally these apartments are for 2 people, they have a small living with kitchen and a bedroom with the entry to the bathroom. There are a lot of options though, one of them we have in our company, which would be www.departamentoscentrourbano.cl where you can make your reservation directly with paying only 2% of your reservation at the moment you book it. Or you can search in the web of booking.com and hostelworld.com for other companies and apartments to name only two alternatives available online.